What Job Seekers Can Learn From the Met Orchestra’s Auditions

What does it take to land a job with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra? With blind auditions and nail-biting competition, the process has more in common with “The Voice” than what is typically associated with classical music.

A recent audition for a spot with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra narrowed a field of 208 applicants to 67 candidates, with 15 musicians advancing to the semifinals. From there, the audition committee selected only two finalists, who competed for the job.

Principal bassoonist William Short wrote a gripping account of two candidates, percussionist Rob Knopper and principal clarinetist Boris Allakhverdyan, as they experienced what he calls “a unique system of interviewing for a dream job.”

Even though most job seekers won’t encounter an audition committee, or sheet music for Bedřich Smetana’s“The Bartered Bride” at their next interview, here are three lessons that can apply to anyone looking for a new job:

1. Practice makes perfect.

Meticulous preparation can give you an edge over more experienced candidates. Rob, who had to submit a CD before making the cut for a live audition, recorded over and over again until he improved. But with that, his standards also rose until “the tiny errors became…so clear.”

2. Figure out what factors help put you in the right mindset.

For Boris, having a screen separating him from the audition committee helped him feel more comfortable and play his best. “I concentrate on my playing, not on how I look,” he said. “Sometimes I sit with my legs crossed, and I prefer that! I play better like that! All four auditions I have won were screened [until the end].” In auditions in which the screen comes down, “I think about ‘looking good’ too much…I feel like I shouldn’t just play musically, I should look musical, too. They’re looking at you, not at the music.”

3. Learn from the experience, even rejection.

“Of course, every rejection I got–and there were tons of them–hurt in its own way,” said Rob, “but as long as I was able to say, ‘OK, this preparation process yields this result,’ I was driven to keep changing things up.”

Both Boris and Rob had to successfully demonstrate their skills not only with music they knew, but in unfamiliar territory. “You’re not testing [who has the most] years of experience,” said Rob. “Everyone has exactly the same amount of time to prepare.”

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